Mizzou football program remains on recruiting roll as official visits continue (2024)

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Eli Drinkwitz is turning visits into verbal commitments.

With Class of 2025 recruits out of school for the summer and taking official visits to some of their preferred future destinations, the Missouri football coach has been adding to his next crop of prospects in rapid-fire fashion.’

Three players have verbally committed to Mizzou in the last week, kicking off a wave of summer commitments that could leave the Tigers’ 2025 signing class largely set before the recruits’ senior seasons of high school football even have begun.

Running back Jamarion Morrow, a four-star athlete from the Memphis area, committed Friday night and headlines the newest commits.

Morrow narrowed his options to MU, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas A&M and Oregon and visited the Crimson Tide and Aggies before picking the Tigers.

The Rivals.com recruiting service sees Morrow as a strong prospect, rating him as the No. 2 all-purpose running back in the 2025 class and 139th best player in the bunch, regardless of position.

Morrow’s high school highlights show off a slippery running style that evades contact in quite a few situations, from traditional handoffs to screens and routes run as a receiver. He also has played on the defensive side of the ball.

Offensive lineman Henry Fenuku, a three-star recruit out of Fort Worth, Texas, committed just a few days after taking his official visit to Mizzou last weekend. He also had visited Ohio State and Texas Tech, but picked the Tigers over additional interest from Southern California and Mississippi.

He has lined up primarily at left guard in high school, pancaking defenders when asked to pull across the line and work his way into the second level of the defense. Recruiting services rank him similarly as one of the 20 best interior offensive line prospects in his class.

Safety Dyllon Williams, who is from Demopolis, Alabama, also committed to Missouri after taking an official visit. He’d also taken trips to Mississippi State and Cincinnati and had a visit with Kentucky planned before committing to the Tigers. Recruiting services grade Williams as a three-star prospect and one of the top 30 players coming out of talent-rich Alabama.

Those three additions give Mizzou 10 verbal commitments for the 2025 class, a pace on par with the rest of the Southeastern Conference.

It’s still early enough in the recruiting cycle for team rankings to be somewhat determined by quantity more than quality, but Missouri remains within the mix in the SEC.

Rivals.com lists MU 10th in the conference, trailing the likes of Ole Miss and Tennessee but solidly ahead of South Carolina and Arkansas. That’s good for 24th in the nation, sandwiched between the Big 12’s Texas Tech and Atlantic Coast Conference’s Wake Forest.

Drinkwitz still is far ahead of his commitment pace from the 2024 recruiting cycle. At this time a year ago, the Tigers had just three verbal commits and didn’t cross into double digits until mid-July. Something similar was true for the 2023 wave, which saw MU with five commitments at this stage.

Some of that seems to be because of a broader acceleration in the recruiting process. With football programs setting aside a handful of roster spots for eventual transfer portal additions each year, the number of freshmen that a team will take on likely has at least some sort of cap. That could be pressing high school players to lock in their destinations earlier than normal.

Commitments remain verbal until December 4, which is when recruits can sign letters of intent to lock in their school choice.

Farther down the recruiting timeline, this weekend marked the beginning of the direct contact for the 2026 class across sports, meaning coaches can now recruit high school players who have just completed their sophom*ore years.

That means a flurry of initial conversations and offers are flowing out of programs around the country.

Mizzou men’s basketball team was among the prolific Rolodex-users, touching base with several top 15-ranked prospects in the 2026 wave.

And, in a well-known football household, Missouri football extended to an offer to safety Cooper Witten, son of former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten.